Memory

Memory is the retention of information over time.

ENCODING

Gettinginformationinto memory

STORAGE

Retaininginformationover time

RETRIEVAL

Takinginformationout of storage

The Basic Stages of Memory

The Modal Memory Model

Short-Term MemoryComponents of Working Memory

Phonological loop• Encodes information (from reading, speaking, or

repeating words to memorize them

Visuospatial sketchpad • Processes information (e.g., the location and features

of objects)

Central executive• Controls the interactions between the subsystems and

long-term memory

storage• Sensory store

storage• Sensory store working STM

storage• Sensory store working STM LTM

storage• Sensory store working STM LTM

• Strategies for actively using WSTM– Rehearsal– Chunking

.

HOW DID THEY DO IT?

• Input: ….4 2 0 7 9 9 8 1 0 6 9 3 8….• 420. “I said a flat mile, a good high school

mile”• 799 “I said 79 was an age, almost 80”• 810 “And 8:10 was a 2-mile, and I said it

was a really fast two mile”• 6938 “Then this was a 10-mile, it was up

there, a really slow 10-mile”.

Types of memory

The “seven sins” of memory• Transience

• Absent-mindedness

• Blocking

• Misattribution

• Suggestibility

• Bias

• Persistence

• Weakening or loss

• Breakdown of attention

• Thwarted memory search

• Assigning to wrong source

• Implanted by a leading question

• Editing and rewriting

• Repeated recall of disturbing information

After Schacter (2001)After Schacter (2001)

“Seven Sins of Memory”

• First 3: sins of omission

• Next 3: memory is present, but wrong

• Final sin: unwanted memories

1st Sin Transcience

• Memories become decreasingly accessible over time

• Interference– Retroactive interference– Proactive interference

• e.g. No longer remembering 3rd grade teachers name at age 50

2nd SinAbsentmindedness

• Lapses of attention that result in memory failure.

3rd SinBlocking

• Information that has not faded out of memory but is temporarily inaccessible

3rd SinBlocking

• Information that has not faded out of memory but is temporarily inaccessible

• Ex. That word on the tip of your tongue you just can not remember to save your life

4th SinMisattribution

Assigning memory/idea to the wrong source– Source memory

• Late to develop– False recognition

• Associative connections

– Historical overlap– Serious implications:

eyewitness testimony

5th SinSuggestibility

• Implanted memories that are produced by leading questions or suggestions

• e.g. “Didn’t Joe break up with you with a post-it note?”

• Rare cases people will recall traumatic events that never happened to them

6th SinBias

Distorting influences of present information to memory recollection.– Consistency bias– Change bias– Egocentric bias

• Current knowledge and beliefs can skew our memories

• “I DID NOT vote Bush for President!”

7th SinPersistence

Unwanted memories of difficult or traumatic experiences that can not be forgotten

In extreme cases it changes the perception of their world- i.e. war veterans

Memory

CONSTRUCTING IMAGES

DEEP PROCESSINGDeeper processing,

better memory

REHEARSAL Consistent repetition ofinformation over time

ELABORATIONAdds to distinctiveness

ORGANIZATION

ENCODING

ATTENTONConcentrate and Focus

34

Memory“Getting People to Pay

Attention”

Focus on active learning and be aware of individual differences

Encourage attention and minimize distraction

Use cues and gesturesfor important material

Be interesting

Use media and technology to make learning enjoyable

35

Memory

Sensory Memory Retains information for an instant

Short-Term Memory Limited capacity; retain for 30 seconds

without rehearsal

Long-Term Unlimited capacity over a long Memory period of

time

Memory’s Time Frames

36

Memory Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Theory

MemoryRepresenting Information in Memory

-Nodes stand for labels and concepts

-Network is irregular and distorted

-Long-term searches are not exact

-Retrieved information is fit into an existing formation (schema)

-Schemas: Concepts, knowledge, or information about events that already exist in the mind and influence the way we encode

Schema TheoriesNetwork Theories

MemoryRetrieval and Forgetting

Retrieval

Recognition: identify learned information, as in multiple choice

Serial position: recall better

at the beginning and end of list

Recall: previously learned info.,as in fill-in-the-blank

Specificity: associations form cues

Primacy effect: items at thebeginning remembered best

MemoryRetrieval and Forgetting

Cue Dependent Forgetting

Interference Theory

Decay Theory

• Caused by a lack of retrieval cues

• Other information (new or old) gets in the way of what we are trying to remember

• Passage of time allows “memory trace” to disintegrate

The Information-Processing Approach

41

Expertise

AcquiringExpertise

Expertise andLearning

Expertise andTeaching

Expertise and Learning

1. Have superior recall, use “chunking” of information2. Organize around important ideas and concepts3. Demonstrate effortless retrieval by taking the time to formulate a plan4. Are flexible rather than having a rigid, fixed routine5. Though talented, develop learning and study strategies

- Spread out learning• Practice• Practice

42

Experts . . .

Principles for Remembering

• It is very important that you have an interest in what you learn.

• Pay attention or you won’t learn anything!

• Organize the information.

• Practice what you have learned & organized.

Memory Aids/Methods

There are many types of memory aids/methods that help you remember things, e.g.:1. Diary 2. Memos3. Turning numbers into letters4. Making notes5. Rote rehearsal.However, some are effective and some arenot so effective.

Effective Less Effective

• Extensive recoding

• Link-word method

• Inductive, concept

attainment method

• Method of Loci

• Simple rehearsal

• Rote method

• Tutoring & lecturing

MnemonicsThe following slides introduces somemnemonics for enhancing remembering.

Mnemonics are:• Techniques for helping us to remember.

• It is the connecting of two ideas, with the second one triggering yet another one, and so on.

• It is based on the idea of making information meaningful by relating it to what you know.

Keyword Method

Select one word to represent a longer thought or several subordinate thoughts.

1. Generate your own keywords.2. Construct an image between the keyword &

the word to learn.3. Keyword word to learn.4. Keywords should be visualizable.5. Keywords should be interacting.

image

Keyword Method (example)

Word to learn: persuade Keyword:

Picture:

to learn keyword

A woman is being persuaded to buy a purse.

purse

Keyword Method (example)

This example relies both on rhyme or sound & imagery

Spanish word to learn:

lapiz

(keyword)

pencil (meaning of lapiz)

trapeze

Keyword Method (example)

Spanish word patio (pronounced pot-o) meaning duck

patio

duck

pot

Keyword Method (example)

• French word pere sounds pear,

& it means father.• Generate images of

father by using the

keyword pear

Pegword Method1. First memorize a set of objects rhyming with

integer names.

2. Then generate an of each item to be learned.

3. Link the of the item to learn to the corresponding of the

object.

4. Give it a meaning (use picture).

image

image

image

Pegword Method (examples)

Integers-Objects Image To Learn Image One-bun Two-shoeThree-treeFour-doorFive-hiveSix-sticksSeven-heavenEight-gateNine-wineTen-hen

waitress

coat

Method of Loci (Places)

Good for remembering events in a particular

order.

1. Construct a sentimental map of your home/

surrounding area.

3. Place the things in these loci.

4. Walk down the street to pick up the things.

5. No more than one item in one place.

6. Places should not be too much alike.

Method of Loci (example step 1)

MacDonald

Barber Shop

Fruit Vendor

Drug Store

Pet Shop

HK Bank

China Bank

Florist

Bakery

ParkHome

Method of Loci (example step 2)

public recognition

privileges

extra marks

extrinsic reward

praise

see parents

see principal

detention

copy work

reprimand+ - Reinforcement

Acronym

• Remember words by forming one word to represent all of the words.

• Word formed on the basis of the first letters.

POLKAP – pegword

O – organizational schemeL – lociK – keywordA – acronym

Acrostics

• Construct a sentence to remember a sequence of objects.

• First letter of each word represents the first letter of the object.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas

=Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,

Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

Acrostics (example)

Biological groupings used in taxonomy

King Phillip called out fifty good soldiers.

i h l r a e p

n y a d m n e

g l s e i u c

d u s r l s i

o m y e

m s

Acrostics (examples)

Physics

Sober Physicists Don't Find Giraffes In Kitchens.

~The orbital names for electrons (SPDFGIK).

Computer ScienceAll People in Saskatchewan Turned NDP. ~ The OSI model: Application, Presentation,

Session, Transport, Network, Data Link, Physical

Rhymes

Make a rhyme to remember information. E.g.

• Black & Yellow, Kill a Fellow

• Black & Red, Venom Lack

Ridiculous Association/Image Bizarreness

• This method is to remember things by associating objects with bizarre or ridiculous images.

• Association is enhanced if the image is vivid, ridiculous, impossible, or illogical.

• Make the associations interactive, such as

rule of substitution

out-of-proportion rule

rule of exaggeration

• e.g. The dog rode the bicycle down the street.

Imagery Representation

• Good readers respond to text by constructing images of the meanings conveyed by the text.

• This method requires making mental pictures of material.

• No intentional transformation of content is applied here.

e.g. “The king led the elves through the driving rain storm.” – form in your mind the actions and the scene of the sentence.

Memory Strategies

Other than mnemonics, there are memory strategies that are useful for remembering.

The slides below differentiate the strategies into 2 categories:

Elaboration

&

Organization

Memory Strategies

Elaboration

• Note taking

~ construct meaningful paraphrases of important ideas

~ integrate new & old information in personally meaningful way

• Story Grammar

Who is the main character?

Where and when did the story take place?

What did the main characters do?

How did the story end?

How did the main character feel?

• PQ4R

1. Preview. Survey headings.

2. Question. Ask yourself as you read.

3. Read. Read the material.

4. Reflect. Make connections to prior know.

5. Recite. Test your memory of the text.

6. Review. Reread portions you don’t

understand or remember.

• Self-questioning

“How does this information relate to what the author discusses in the preceding section?”

~(synthesis)

“How can this be applied in a scholarly setting?”

~(application)

Organizing

• Classifying /Grouping

girl heart robin purple finger flute blue organ man hawk green lung eagle child piano

green man piano heart eagle

blue girl flute lung hawk

purple child organ finger robin

• Concept Mapping

~ Diagram concepts

relationships

~ Identify important concepts & specify their interrelationship

Major Contrast of Strategies

Less Effective Techniques are those that rely on

simple rehearsal of material.

More Effective Techniques are those that require:

~ extensive recoding, and

~ relating of new content to other knowledge.

Strategies for Improving Memory

• Pay attention

• Make sure you understand

• (Extensive) encoding

• Make associations (old & new)

• Impose organizations

• Involve all senses

Strategies for Improving Memory

• Practice and distribute learning (spread out practicing over days)

• Over-learn (episodic-semantic)• Get some sleep (no alcohol or caffeine after 7pm)

• Use verbal Mnemonics

• Use visual imagery

• Diet

Strategies for Improving Memory

• Avoid stress• Exercise (increases the formation of new neurons in the hippocampus and better

memory)

• Fasting (ghrelin)

• Routine

• Mental focus (remove distractions)

• Drugs

Ghrelin

Hormone released by fasted stomach and travels in the blood stream to the brain

Acts distantly in hippocampus on specific receptorspromotes long-term potentiation higher synaptic density in the CA1 region

ghrelin improved memory performance in a dose-dependent manner. Performance was improved 20–30% at the highest dose, effectively turning C-grade mice into straight-A students

Aged SAMP8 mice—a model for Alzheimer's disease—also showed improved memory performance with ghrelin dosing, and the authors propose ghrelin analogues as potential treatments for memory loss. Of course, over-eating and weight gain would be potential side effects.

Mnemonic Devices

• Mnemonic (from the Greek for “memory”)—memory-improvement technique based on encoding items in a special way– Method of loci—imagining the different pieces

of information as rooms within a house– Peg-word—rhyming words with position on a

list (one in a bun, etc.)– Substitute word—i.e., occipital—ox sip it all– Word associations—i.e., Roy G. Biv, etc.

retrieval cues• Hints• Semantic association• Historic association• Emotional state association• Smells and sounds• Psychological/physical

state association– Encoding specificity principle

– State-dependent learning

memory enhancing drugs• Companies compete to find ways to improve memory

– increase NMDA/AMPA for LTP

– Ghrelin

– Amphetamines, (ADHD)

– Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors

– Chocolate (dopamine)

• If they discover them, should they be made available to the general public?

• Question: Is taking drugs to improve academic performance (through enhanced memory) any different than taking drugs to improve athletic performance?

Adult Neurogenesis

• Exercise

• Antidepressants

Liquorice

• Carbenoxolone tid

• Increased verbal memories of 55-75 year old men within weeks

• Blocks stress hormone (cortisol)

• BUT high BP side effect and

• Needs to be altered to enter cells.

BDNF or gene

• Injected directly into brain

• AD mice, elderly rats, monkeys (degenrate)

• Lesioned: rats and monkeys

• Improved learning and memory

• Reduced rate of brain cell death

• Increased neuron connections

Ambidextrous

• Close left handed relative…

• RHs better at remembering events

• Impaired facial recognition

Musician

• Speech, language. Memory, attention, IQ and empathy

• After 15m of piano lessons- young children had more highly developed auditory and motor areas.

• Professional musicians have inceased grey matter volume. Routing info around the brain (motor, audition & visuo-spatial)

• Start <7yrs… thicker corpus callosum, the bundle of nerve fibres that shunts info between the brain halves.

• Musicians… better auditory memory and attention, children have larger vocab and higher reading ability.

• Increased IQ (early training)• Better spatial acuity• Increased plasticity• Better at language learning• More empathic… fine tune ability to recognize

emotional nuance in speech

tDCS, transcranial direct current stimulation

• 1-2 mAmps

• Increases neuron excitability

• Enhanced cognition (attention and vision)

• Math-right parietal lobe– TMS= math disrupted– tDCS= mathenhanced

• Improvements lasted at least 6months!!

• Portable implanted gadgets?

Bright Lights• Light improves cognition and attention• Bright light during the day

– Visual searches– Math– Logical reasoning– Reaction time

• Melanopsin– Alertness hormone

Calm Energy Focus Normal

• BLUE light most potent– Mimics daylight best

• “School Vision”– reading speed +35%– Error frequency -45%

• Calm– Fidgeting -78% in School vision, -10% control

• Blue light also amplifies emotions

• 'normal' setting is for day-to-day classroom activities,

• 'energy' gives an intense blue tint to the light to invigorate pupils when they need to be more active.

• 'Focus', which is an intense whiter light, is designed to help children concentrate during challenging tasks while

• ‘Calm', a warmer red tinted color, makes the room more relaxed and is designed to settle a class towards the end of the day, when disruptive behavior is most frequent

Brain Food

• Omega-3 fatty acids– Oily fish, walnuts, green veg.– Little or no effect on memory

• Flavonoids– Blueberries, blackcurrants, cocoa, green tea, red

wine.– Improved attention– Protect against neurodegeneration

• Raise levels of BDNF, stimulates axon development

– Lower BP– Increases blood vessel elasticity– Increase brain blood flow

• Good for mental performance• Possibly via hippocampal neurogenesis

• Magnesium-L-threonate– Increased Mg in brain– Increased spatial and associative memory in

young and old rats– Increases plasticity and neurogenesis

Exercise• Regular exercise increases brain blood flow… in

rats at least• Monkey…improved memory (hidden food)

– Runners had greater blood vessel volume

• Humans… ?– Moderate exercise slows age-related decline– Daily walking improved executive functions

(planning/abstract thought) in younger adults.

• Exercise=neurogenesis, ↑BDNF and VEGF• Excessive Exercise= decreased BDNF!

Meditation• No difference in visual memory • Immediately after meditation though

– Unbelievable performance

• 20mins yoga improved visual memory and spatial skills, temporarily.

• 10hrs a day for 3months– Enhances attention and executive function

• Four 20min sessions– Improved visuo-spatial processing, working memory

and executive function in novices

Brain Training Software

• Does not work!!

• You only get better at playing games

• 11,000 volunteers in the largest study showed no differences between brain trained vs control subjects.

Substance Use and the Brain

Substance Use and the Brain

1. How is the brain affected long-term?• Alcohol• Marijuana• Stimulants

2. What can we do about this?

How is the brain affected long-term?

• Alcohol

• Marijuana

• Stimulants

Substance Use and the Brain

Drinking & Thinking

• ~50% alcoholic adults show some problems:– Spatial skills– Planning– Learning and memory

• IQ and language OK

• Recovery– Much in 1st month– More in 1st year if sober

Alcohol and Sleep

• Problems when using and when sober– Falling asleep– Total sleep– Sleep quality

• Affects memory and thinking

• Feeling unrested increases relapse risk

Brain Structure

• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)– Safe– No injections– Shows small brain

parts

Shrinkage: Ventricles

Non-alcoholic Alcoholic

Shrinkage: Cerebellum

Healthy Control Alcoholic

Volume Recovery

During Treatment 2 Years Later

How is the brain affected long-term?

• Alcohol

• Marijuana

• Stimulants

Substance Use and the Brain

Marijuana & Thinking

• Modest problems in very heavy users– Learning and memory– Sustained attention– Impulsivity

• Most recover after 1 month abstinent

Marijuana & Brain

• No evidence of brain shrinkage

• Altered brain waves related to attention

brain blood flow

brain response while learning

How is the brain affected long-term?

• Alcohol

• Marijuana

• Stimulants

Substance Use and the Brain

Stimulants &Thinking

• Motor skills

• Planning

• Switching tasks

• Decision making

• Working memory

• Impulsivity

• Learning and memory

Stimulants & Brain Structure

• Volume reductions:

– Cingulate

– Hippocampus

– No overall gray matter changes

• Volume increase:

– Subcortical areas

Stimulants & Blood FlowHigh blood flow

Low blood flow

Healthy Control Cocaine-dependent

Gottschalk, 2001, Am J Psychiatry

Blood Flow Recovery

Non users

Cocaine users, 10 days sober

Cocaine Users, 100 days sober

High High blood blood flowflow

Low Low blood blood flowflow

Substance Use and Brain

Summary:

• Thinking problems

• Tissue loss

• Decreased blood flow

• Altered brain response to task

• Much recovery with abstinence

Part F: Dolphin Test for Stress in Medical Staff

• Two seconds exposure time. You see two dolphins, jumping together.

• Unstressed people often report they see the dolphins as identical.

• The more differences you pick up, the more stressed you are.

• FOCUS NOW